Our Response to Suffering

Written by Bill Alt on the Third Sunday of Lent

My mom is a miracle.  Almost forty years ago, my dad sat my older sister and me down and told us that mom was very sick; she would be going to the hospital.  She had been diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer and did not know what the future would be for her and her five young children.  She survived but in 2009 she called to say that she would not be able to come to my oldest son’s first birthday party because she was sick again.  She had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

Now, seven years later, she has survived and beaten cancer.  More importantly, she lives her life with purpose and not regrets and recriminations.  Each moment for her is an opportunity to love and she has never let her children, her grandchildren, or her husband forget that they are loved.  She lives in peace and joy, a sort of indifference, and I am so grateful for her life and the gift that she is.

I will not believe that her cancer is a punishment from God or even a testing of her faith.  No, she is no more guilty, I am no more guilty, than the unfortunate people killed by the falling tower at Siloam we hear about in today’s Gospel.  Suffering is not a punishment for our sinfulness and we need not seek it out in order to draw closer to God.  Suffering will find us.  It’s our response that matters.

Sin and suffering are real.  Will we repent and believe that God never tires of us?  Will we seek forgiveness?  Will we cultivate the ground of our heart, fertilize it, so that our lives bear fruit?  Will we allow God to tend to our barrenness, to be our master gardener?

Questions for Reflection: 
How have you responded to the suffering in your life?
During Lent, what are you doing to cultivate the ground of your heart?
How is God the master gardener of your life?

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Bill Alt
Bill is St. Mary’s Campus Minister for Social Justice. He lives in Ypsilanti with his wife, Angie, and two sons, Jacob and Patrick.  They have worshiped at St. Mary Student Parish since 2012. They miss the mountains of West Virginia but have found a home in Michigan.
Email: [email protected]